China's Data Gap
Irks Steel Industry

By

Robert Guy Matthews Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated Feb. 3, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

China's ascendancy as the world's most-important steel market has outpaced the country's ability to definitively track consumption or production -- a troubling development for the world's steelmakers, their raw-materials suppliers and the industries building China's cars and skyscrapers.

The stampede to China to manufacture goods and build its infrastructure has created a huge demand for steel, which in turn has boosted demand for the iron ore and coal used to make the steel. But nobody knows for sure exactly how much...